12-17-2009 - Game Report
12-17-2009 Alpha Squad *Ideman *Haney *Veres *O'Connor *Hu Beta Squad *Cameron *Holland *Anan *Gustaf *Davan -*- Okay - Gen Washburn ordered a week's break before going through the portals - Beta Team was assigned to essentially Camp the platform, setting up supplies and things useful for the exploration of the portals. Gen Washburn ordered a field cart - like a gardening cart but bigger with tractor treads on the rear. Because in Jay's FW game electricity works on the platforms and fringe roads, this cart is electrical-assist. It rolls through the gate but comes through with it's batteries dead. They set up a generator on the platform and charged up gear and then went through the first portal on the right. -*- 0P2: Poachers Cave They found themselves with dead electrical gear in a dark place - Idemann hand cranked his flashlight and they saw.... trash. Cans labeled in russian. Ammo boxes for the type of ammo AK 47s use. Haney and Veres, the two scouts move over a broad lip and find the forwad chamber of the cave. The ring behind them is a warp - it's not visible to non FW Veres and Haney report trash and carcasses. Idemann has the generator cranked up - after a few minutes of charging, he takes his GPS to the mouth of the cavern - and gets signal - they are in the Meru National Forest in Kennya. Ideman takes the sat-phone off the cart and calls Gen Washburn who has the team turn around and come through the portal. At this point we describe the portal passing process for the FW - Mud-Blink-Mud-out. the process takes less than a second the blink is where all electrical potential is nullified - the brain is even shut down, but for a healthy person it comes right back up. The "Mud" feel is the force that pulls the FW through. no one has tried to fight it yet. General Washburn alerts His commanders to request that the location of the Cave in Kenya be cordened off and controlled as part of the Hatsumi project. The U.S. Ambassador to the UN asks for this - The Kenyan Abassador calls Gen Washburn Directly to ask what is going on. Washburn reports accurately. The Ambbassador thanks him and hangs up. The Keyan Wildlife Service was already there. The PCs didn't know this, but the cave was a known poacher hide out and was keft in place with ekectronic traps to summon the KWS in case Poachers returned to it. -*- Washburn mandates a week's break from portal delving. The Doctor's notice that Juanna O'Connor's cold has disappeared. The portals are the cure for the comon cold. -*- Beta Squad is setting up and suppoting experiments on the platform for Science department. First is a telescope to try and study the stars visible from the platform sky. (GM's Note, doomed, but they have to do it to find out, don't they?) The physics department gets a headache - how to the portals handle the velocity difference between Kenya, nearish to the equator and Hatsumi Island, nearish the pole? The first idea is to send one of the FW through the portal with an accelerometer - but this presents problems. the portal drains all devices - the device must work going through the portal. Dennis as one of the science guys gets an idea - a box, filled with gel - the inside surfaces of the box get film strips - radium pellets suspended in the gel - if the box accelerates during transit - the filmn will show differential exposure. Washburn calls Kenya to warn them an FW is coming through. Ideman carries the box through. He has a few wry words with the KWS agents guarding the cave about the value of a portal between Antarctica and the African bush. Then he steps back through. the science wonks get the box and complain that the radium has been replaced with lead. Science guy complains to Gen Washburn. Washburn says "Let's send it through again with better controls. Science guys get a box, set it up the same way - and then mark the radium pellets and seal the box with tape. Ideman goes and then returns. The tape is undisturbed and the lead pellets show the same markings. The science guys are abashed and confused. The conclusion is that the gate some how neutralizes radioactive materials. 0P3: Mohenjo-Daro Warp At the end of the week Alpha squad makes their next penetration - the next gate over. This time Idemann elects to send one FW through for a quick peek and then to return, in order to minimize over all risk. Haney steps through the next portal. This is 0P3. It seems to be carved stone with a man's head carved in the top - in a style, that I'll describe below. In Jay-FW - the gates are composed of warped space - the "Surface" can mimic the feel annd texture of any material (That's just a matter of making the ringht amount of bumps in the right sizes) The gates tend to take on appearances themed to their destination - in order to provide easy visual recognition. Okay, so Haney steps through. he finds himself in a warm place, in a dry river wash. As he comes through, he can see a military truck and a tour bus driving along a bridge across the dry river wash. The truck is marked in some midddle eastern language - so is the tour bus, but above the middle eastern looking text in a phrase in English. "Mohenjo-daro Tours" This gate from the planet side is a warp - The ring station is buried in the ruins of the city - excavations are currently halted there to preserve the site. Haney steps nack through the portal and reports his findings to Idemann and Gen Washburn. This sparks a move towards the computer to hit wikipedia. and look up Mohenjo-daro. It is, for the record one of the largest cities of it's day, remnnants of a surprisingly advanced culture, the Indus Valley Culture. The city was at it's height from 2,300 bce to 1,900 bce. it is speculated that the city was abandoned when the river iit was on the banks of dried up. BTW Haney was in a tributary wash - the main dry river wash is the size of a free way. He was not noticed by any Pakistani folks during his foray. Washburn decides to leave this gate alone - he has no pressing need to be in Pakistan and does not want the Pakistanis to realize they have a warp in their territory. 0P4 Yonaguni Ring The next scout to do a quick peek in Veres. Veres goes through the gate and I had Dennis make three d20 rolls. First - does Veres panic in shock and surprise to find himself 30 feet under water? No Then - does he panic when he looks around and really comprehends that he's under water? No Lastly - to make it back to the portal and go back through. Veres exits the gate on the plaform side soaking wet and spitting ocean water. He was amazingly lucky. Dennis rolled really well. This established that Gate 0P4 is under water. Idemann annd Washburn elect to come back to that one. 0P5 Ararat Anomaly Complex Haney goes through the next portal. it looks like flagstone blocks fit together to make the ring station. Plainly impossible but it sets the theme. Haney goes through to find a pitch black chamber with a generic ring station. The rock seems to be black Igneous rock. Basalt, almost obsidian. the air is cold and resonably fresh. As Haney comes back through to report, his ears fill with wax, The other side of the gate was at lower pressure indiciating it may be at higher altitude. 0P7 Forest Island Warp Moving on to the next gate. This gate is formed of thick rock crystalsm that look like a volcanic extrusion. Veres goes through expecting the worst. His finds himself on the steep shore of a crater lake, where the rocks are jumbled basalt. This gate, too is a warp - the ring station is buried under melted rock under the lake. veres goes back and reports his findings. Idemann and his team go through. Exiting this gate takes dex rolls - the warp hangss above jumbled stones which are slippery from the lake water and rain and stuff. Hu and O'Connor maneuver the cart through and surprise me by rolling very well indeed. (I was expecting the cart to get stuck in the jumbled rock) Idemann starts the generator and eventually charges up the GPS and Sat phone enough to work - they are on Forest Island, in a nature preserve off the Alaksa Panhandle. In our reality the Island is fine. In Jay-FW-Prime it bears a crater and a crater lake, courtesy of the antimatter bomb that it recieved in 9,960 bce. Gen Washburn is happy and surprised to find a warp/gate on US Territory. After looking around for a bit, they head back through the warp. 0P8 Baikal Mountain Complex GM's Note: - The PCs have no idea where this complex is. All they know iss that it's a dark, empty cave some place. Haney is the next one through. Again he finds pitch blackness. With lights he sees more of the same dense black rock. This example is not as cold as the previous one and not aty as high an altitutde. Haney returns and reports. Idemann and team come through. This could have been a standard dungeon crawl had I mapped the place first - but it would have been a dull one. No liiving creatures or working machines populate this place. It has relief patterns in the Terhmelern style, but softend and partially melted. The Ring Portal adopts this pattern, as well. The team discovers odd flat "Puddles" of metal - with crystals embedded in them. 10 crystals are discovered and removed - The metal puddles were the remains of machines and furniture which was present when the installation was hit. The installation also has a black, crunchy ash like layer all over the floors in some places on the walls - the remains of the last inhabitants and their tools-furnitre, belongings etc. The Installation is layed out in all one level, with varying over head heights - but features a central hallway large enough for a truck to back into. They discover what might be an entrance, but it's jammed with rock, ice and organic debris, leaves, twigs and broken tree limbs. GM's note about what you'd expect if there was an avalanche and no one ever dug the place out. Items Discovered -''' *Object: *Use/Condition roll: *Shape: *Description: *'''Object: 01 *Use/Condition roll: unk *Shape: - d12 *Description: Node system for Dummies *'Object: 02' *Use/Condition roll: unk *Shape: d4 (A Key, lt green) *Description: Has holographic pictures of all personnel at Baikal base circa 9,960 BCE, will show slide show or specific pictures if asked. 90 people - 30 Humans, 30 Terhmelern, 30 0thers (Have to roll up others. *'Object: 03' *Use/Condition roll: unk *Shape: D2 - (A disk, about the size of a quarter) *Description: A collection of lovingly detailed pictures of plant life around Baikal Base, Circa 9,960 BCE *'Object: 04' *Use/Condition roll: unk *Shape: D8 *Description: broken, dark *'Object: 05' *Use/Condition roll: unk *Shape: D8 *Description: Broken *'Object: 06' *Use/Condition roll: 3, 15 *Shape: D12 *Description: A report on the mating habits of several local species of birds, as a passionate opera, David Attenborough meets the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. *'Object: 07' *Use/Condition roll: 16,1 *Shape: D4 (a key, black) *Description: Another key, visibly cracked - if put into a pylon, it will flash and explode - and lock down the station. It is a black key. If held by a FW it will transfer them to a random planetside portal - each time, a user cannot return to the same planetary portal twice, using this key. *'Object: 08' *Use/Condition roll: 11, 10 *Shape: d10 *Description: A list of the keys present at Baikal base and their holders, as of 9,960 BCE - it lists 8 keys, two are present - the others were in the field when the Baikal base was hit. IS Sayuri's one of them? Unknown. that wwould leave 4 keys in unknown positions. *'Object: 09' *Use/Condition roll: 13, 20 *Shape: d20 *Description: a full inventory of Baikal base. Many of the items described are obscure or only register to the people as gibberish. But this presents a clear picture of how the Terhmelern liked to run a survey base. *'Object: 10' *Use/Condition roll: 14, 1 *Shape: d20 *Description: Broken 0P10 Sandstone Ring 0P8 was Veres' again. He stepped through to find a a cylindrical cave with ellipsoid edges. It has a gate on one side, and a gate on the other side. The gate description from the platform side is that the ring looks like it was carved from warm, pink colored sand stone. The cavern itself seems to have been erroded into the proper shape - and quarts crystals that look like they were in the sandstone as it was deposited, and then the sandstone erroded until a portion of the quartz was visible again - then set the quartz crystals to glow, and this is how the cvern is lit. The floor of the cavern is relatively flat - and makes a sort of path for vehcles between the platform gate aand the other one. Veres didn't check the other gate (It's actually a "Real" Artifact ment to suggest the gate pattern - I described this else where. But Idemann and Washburn elected to leave well enough alone in this case. Category:Browse Category:Game Reports